HIDDEN DEATH

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20073, 20 October 1939, Page 5

HIDDEN DEATH

SUBMARINE MENACE TOLL OF HUMAN LIFE PEACETIME AND WAR HISTORY OF 300 YEARS The Great War and the present war have demonstrated the striking power of the submarine, but most experts agree that they are still far from having reached perfection. Dangerous enough in peace time, they are deathtraps in war. the crews having little or no chance of saving themselves if depth charges find a vulnerable point when the submarine dives.

From 1922 until the outbreak of the war there were 20 submarine disasters resulting in the loss of 937 lives. Those freshest in the minds of people are the losses of the U.S. submarine Squalus, the British submarine Thetis and the French submarine Phenix with a total loss of 200 lives.

The history of the submarine dates from 1020, when Cornelius van Drcbel, a Dutchman in the service of King James I of England, built such a vessel, states the Dominion, which is staled to have been navigated by 12 rowers at a depth of 12 to 15ft. for several hours in the Thames. First Victim On the night of February 17. 1864. during the American Civil War, the Housatonic, blockading Charleston, was sunk by a spar torpedo fitted over the bow of a submarine.

A recent writer in the Sunday Times of Perth states that this was the first instance (at least, the first on record) of a warship being sunk by a submarine. The submersible, however, swamped through an open hatch, sank, and was lost with her crew of nine men.

Following numerous experiments, the British and French naval authorities later decided that the submarine had reached a stage of development which warranted its inclusion in their navies, and despite attempts to abolish it on humanitarian grounds, this type of warship remains in official favour among the leading Powers as a weapon formidable both in oflcncc and defence.

A Cosmopolitan Effort

The modern form of submarine is a joint production of an Englishman (Robert Whitehead), an Irishman if John Holland) and a Frenchman (Maurice Labeul). Ii is fitted with tanks into which sea water is admitted to reduce buoyancy to vanishing point. When the tanks are full the vessel either sinks of her own accord or is driven under by the combined action of the electric motors and the horizontal rudders.

The maximum depth to which a submarine is known to have descended is a little more than 4001 t. It spends most of its time on the surface of the sea, as does any other ship, and only dives to conceal itself. The cruising radius under water of even a large submarine is limited to about 100 miles. On the surface, however, it has a large radius of action because of the economic running of the Diesel engine. Visions From 30ft Below On the surface a submarine is steered and navigated in the same way as other ships. Submerged, her only "eye” is the periscope, which can be raised from the interior of the ship to a height of about 30i't.

When, therefore, the vessel is submerged to a depth exceeding 30ft., she is deprived of all vision and must be navigated "blind." The periscope r.ot only served as tho "eye.” but also as a range-finder and sighting apparatus for the torpedo tubes.

The submarine’s speed below water rarely exceeds 10 knots, and it is often difficult to calculate through the single eye the speed and course of an approaching ship. Accurate torpedo shooting also requires a high degree of skill fortified by lengthy experience.

Because they are not self-contained vessels, submarines require relief crews, stowage for their spare torpedoes and elaborate workshops for their complicated.machinery. In wartime, therefore, they must have geographically suitable bases for replenishment or they must return to their home ports, a procedure which must naturally lessen their radius of effective action.